Florencia Torche

Documento de trabajo CEEY no. 03/2019

This study examines intergenerational socioeconomic mobility in Mexico, evaluating differences by gender and variation across regions of the country. Our measure of socioeconomic standing of parents and adult children is an index of economic wellbeing that combines ownership of assets and durable goods and access to services at the household level. Mexico features high levels of intergenerational persistence across both genders, but intergenerational persistence of socioeconomic status is stronger among women than men in 2017. The difference in mobility across gender is statistically significant but small in magnitude. The “excess immobility” of Mexican women is mostly accounted for by extra-educational factors, which likely include factors such as use of social networks and direct inheritance of assets. Wide differences in mobility are found across regions of the country. Both men and women are less mobile in the south than in other regions, although the mobility gap is wider among women.